The 55th Annual Downtown Pancake Breakfast

Our annual Western Street Breakfast was held yesterday morning on Pikes Peak Avenue. I think this is one of our city's niftiest traditions. Sponsored by the Pikes Peak Range Riders, the street breakfast kicks off their annual five day ride. The Range Riders parade on horseback through the streets of our downtown at the conclusion of breakfast, then continue onward into the proverbial sunset. What a romantic ideal! I love that this longstanding Colorado Springs tradition is still going strong! You can read more about the Range Riders HERE. (I wonder where they are right now -- how far have they ridden in one day?)

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the event. Full disclosure: in 36 years of living here I'd never attended the street breakfast before, even when I worked downtown. Why? Because I am notoriously nocturnal, and getting up early enough is a near impossible feat for me. I finally made it after all these years, with the help of Pat, who valiantly urged me out of bed, and my friend Steph, whose presence forced me to follow through with my plans. But my brain is not very alert at 7:00 in the morning, thus I failed to bring a decent camera and lenses with me. Next year, if I manage to make it to the Street Breakfast again, I will bring real gear with me and take much better pictures!

Fort Carson soldiers cook and serve all the vittles.

Here come the Range Riders! This is just the best! This year's ride is their 67th. It looks like this guy has got a little cowpoke hitchhiker.

So many gorgeous horses!

This year's Girl of the West, Rachael Braaten.

Here come the Rangerettes! I've always thought it'd be fun to be a Rangerette. Alas, I do not possess the kind of mad riding skills necessary for the job! These are serious horsewomen.

Father and son? It sure looks that way to me!

Indian hoop dancing. This was awesome!

Great performance! The guys onstage in the background are the famous Flying W Wranglers -- old fashioned cowboy music at its best. If you've never seen them perform, get down the Flying W Ranch and check them out. They're wonderful!

This hoop dancer did his dance in about 30 seconds flat. He was so fast, and so skilled!

Tori Doven, the 2015 El Paso County Fair Queen. She was incredibly poised and polite. Oh but she's not just another pretty face! I did a little research on her and found that she just graduated from high school as the valedictorian, and she'll be matriculating at the Colorado School of Mines in the fall. It's a college for engineering, science and geology, and you pretty much have to be a genius to be accepted there. Good for you, Tori!